Enhanced Parry System
Lets start by explaining how parry basically used to work.  Your parry/bushido skill was checked in a black box. It
didn't matter if you were fighting a mongbat or a champ boss, if you had a 40% chance to parry then you had it for both.
Also both skills together kind of worked against each other and yet bonuses were also provided. 


In the new system every attacker and defender has a Base Attack Score and a Base Defense Score as follows
Attacker: BAS = (Combat Skill)% + (Anatomy)% + (Tactics)% + (Focus)%
Parry: BDS = (Parry)(Shield Type)% +  (Tactics)% + (Focus)%
Bushido: BDS = (Bushido)(Weapon Type)% +  (Tactics)% + (Focus)%
Skill no longer determines if you are using parry or bushido, what does is how you are equiped.
Shield: Parry
Fist or Ranged: Nothing
1 handed or 2 handed Weapon: Bushido

First let me cover this (Skill+HCI+HLD vs Skill+DCI+HLA): This is used to figure out if you hit or don't hit which is not effected by today's change

So lets cover what is effected:
Yes, you can now have both Parry and Bushido skills on the same char.  What determines what skill is used to deflect a blow is how you are equipped.  If you have a shield, you are using parry, if you have a 1 or 2 handed (non ranged) weaponed you are using bushido.


Your chance to parry a blow is determined by your BDS compared against the BAS of whatever is attacking you.  The Parry/Bushido skill are far more then modifiers as they form the base foundation of the score.

Thank you Kane!!!


Could you give us the formula used for the parry chance now?
And what are the values for the Shield Type modifier?
I guess, buckler is less effective than heather shield. Could we have the actual values (mainly for mirror shield in respect to others ) ?

I am not going to give out the actual math.. at least not yet.  The reason behind this is very simple, this is only the first go at it and I expect to make tweaks here and there to fine tune.  Even as I watched a few people today I noticed some changes that I wrote down to consider over the next few days as I observe more.

If I recall the current armor numbers range from 8-30, lowest being a buckler and a order/chaos shield being at the top.  I think mirror is a bronze which is merely right above a buckler however that being said, the reason this system was developed was because there is more then 1 way to skin a cat (aka, provide you with a max block chance).  Then again it is also dynamic so more is always better.

Thanks for the info... i'll check in game too!

The Old (OSI) formula to block an attack with 2 handed was:


(Parrying * 10) * (Bushido * 10) / 41140 (Add 5% if Parrying or Bushido skill is 100 or above)


So now, If using a 2 hander and bushido parry does not factor in at all correct?


If so I have alot of wasted sockets with parry   

Just buy a 1 handed deed and equip a shield too

i was under the impression that Parry still affected the Bushido "blocking" we will have to bug Kane and find out

I always use a shield since my 2 primary weapons are 1 handed. Because of that, I dropped bushido. However, now it seems I can raise bishido back since its been altered to not affect parry. Nice because I like momentum strike. Thank you for this update.

Question. Order and Chaos shields are said to be the best rated shield. I have some left over ED, can I change my mirror shield to one of these, or should I hold off for some more tweaking. Thanks in advance !

Korn of Skyhood

Korn,

ItemID Changes will not affect the base value of the shield.  Kane has more plans up his sleeves for the enhanced parry system, so i wouldnt worry too much about the shield value at this time.  Just keep working on your things.

I did get clarification from him on a couple of things.  Parry is not calculated with Bushido anymore, so if you use Bushido as your defense of choice, Parry will not increase your defenses.

And Bushido is great for a few reasons, Evasion and Confidence.  Evasion allows you to completely evade attacks for 2 seconds after using the skill with a 15 second cooldown (Great when you're expecting a big hit, or just dropped to low health) Confidence heals you on a successful defense. and Perfection allows you to get an increasing damage and luck bonus for successfully striking the opponent repeatedly. (Invoke perfection by honorable combat)

Momentum strike is a bit underwhelming compared to Whirlwind, but it is still nice. and Lightning Strike is low mana and has a critical strike chance to do 300% damage.

Are Bushido and parry now offering the same Defense Values? if so (doubtful) I guess the easy answer is to equip a shield (sigh).

If not With the cost of sockets and Augs, this change really hurts a lot wallet wise for the few primary bushido users out there.

We augmented with parry because it still added to defense (and no other option, cough bushdio). As I said earlier, a lot of wasted slots and augments. Kind of discouraging

The previous system was so broke that yes some decisions did have to be made and this is merely the first step involved in overhauling the combat system.  I can't even count the amount of people I spoke to about these changes, about what was broke with the current system and finally what would be needed to go forward.  Many people had different concerns and I did my best to address them all.